Change is chaotic. But it can be sorta beautiful too.

5/52 – Keep Calm and Make Dean’s List

The grading scale that the college uses for nursing students means that a 94% – 100% is an A, 85% – 93% is a B, 78% – 84% is a C, and anything less than 78% is a fail.

In order to make honor roll, one would have to get A’s and B’s in all the classes taken in a quarter. I’m three quarters in (and seven weeks into my fourth). During my first two quarters, I made honor roll. In the mail the other day, I received a large envelope and was happy, because I hadn’t really paid attention to my final grades last quarter and thought I was getting a third honor roll certificate. Wrong. It was a certificate for Dean’s List.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t do a happy dance around the living room and rush to post the news on my FaceBook page. Making Dean’s List is something I wasn’t expecting and I’m glad that my work is paying off. That said, I’m on track to get Dean’s List for a second time in a row. Part of why this is such a big deal is that there’s a saying people use when discussing grades at my college. “C’s get degrees.”

The mentality being that you can still pass college, pass the NCLEX exam, and start practicing as a nurse, even if you never made a grade higher than a C. Lots of people do that, but I don’t know how to be one of those people. I was student of the month three times in kindergarten. I set my academic performance standards at a young age.

Now that I’ve made Dean’s List, I feel that I can relax a bit more. I’ve reached the highest goal I set for myself and when I graduate – as long as things don’t go awry – it should be magna cum laude. The thought of that is crazy.

Just less than a year ago, I wasn’t even really thinking about going to college.